A capable crop of big-name rookies will transition to the Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) for 2017, adding to the excitement with Phillip Island’s opening round just around the corner on 24-26 February. While the likes of Robbie Bugden, Matt Walters and Michael Blair – to name a few – will all bolster the class as they tackle it fulltime this year, these are the absolute newcomers announced so far who will shine this season.

Source: Supplied.

4. Mitch Levy:
Perhaps one of the more underrated riders in the country at the moment, there’s no denying that Mitch Levy will be one of the extremely capable new prospects lining up in 2017. Last year he finished runner-up in the Australasian Supersport Championship with multiple wins and won the only ASBK Supersport round that he contested in Sydney, so now’s a good time to transition with his YRD-supported YZF-R1.

3. Kyle Buckley:
The newly-crowned Australasian Supersport champion will transfer with highly-experienced Kawasaki BCperformance teammate Bugden to the premier class of ASBK this year and should have a good package beneath him in the ZX-10R. After graduating from the Ninja 300 to Supersport and now Superbike with his team, Buckley is familiar in his surroundings and has all of the ingredients – including confidence – to excel at this level.

Source: Supplied.

2. Callum Spriggs:
When former champion Mike Jones vacated DesmoSport Ducati to take-up a ride with Aruba.it Racing Ducati for this year, team owners Ben Henry and Troy Bayliss opted to bring Spriggs on from the Cube Racing team rather than sign an established Superbike front-runner. What that means is we have a fresh new rider aboard a factory-supported Panigale for 2017 and we’re intrigued to see how he adapts. The word from private testing to date is so far, so good.

1. Troy Guenther:
Winning the Australian Supersport Championship is the next best prize to capture besides the ASBK Superbike crown, which is exactly what Guenther achieved last year. The 18-year-old Queenslander will pilot the powerful Next Gen Motorsports BMW S 1000 RR and should take a reasonably calculated approach, however from what we’ve witnessed in the past, he is a quick learner who will make the most of this opportunity.